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New Intermodal Facility Planned Near Savannah

A new port facility proposed for South Carolina could mean more work for port truckers in the Savannah, Ga., area.

A court ruling last week paved the way for the project to advance. The Georgia Department of Transportation owns the land just up the Savannah River on the other side of the state line. The agency had sued to block Jasper County, South Carolina's attempt to condemn the property and lease it to a subsidiary of Stevedoring Service of America, which plans to build a container terminal there. However, a judge dismissed the case, saying Jasper County's actions were "clearly a valid county public purpose within the meaning of the law."

The property is south of U.S. Highway 17 on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River and downstream of the Georgia Ports Authority's Garden City container terminal.The Journal of Commerce noted that the project would "add a new player in the heated competition between the ports of Savannah and Charleston."An SSA representative told the paper that "there will be plenty of cargo to go around."Georgia is expected to appeal the ruling, and the project still may have to go through an environmental impact statement as well as the federal and state permitting process.Jim Stewart, a spokesman for port truckers in Savannah, told Truckinginfo that a new port would double, if not triple, the number of truckers in the area, and would relieve congested city streets of much truck traffic on the Savannah side of the river. He expressed hopes that before construction, owners of the new facilities would be open to suggestions from port truckers to help make operations run smoothly.